I predicted they were at the end of 20s to 30 y.o., but... wow.That means that they are concerned with their health, and maybe strong for challenges...And they seem so cheerful and happy together, I think I would love to see them until the finals.Go go!

Ron Zeitz and Bill Smith dreamed about competing on “The Amazing Race” almost from the day the CBS series premiered a decade ago, but when the time came, when opportunity knocked, the flight attendants from Laguna Niguel nearly missed the sign.“In January of this year, we got a Facebook message from a friend,” Zeitz says. “But it sounded kind of like spam: Have you guys ever thought about being on ‘The Amazing Race’?

Ron Zeitz, left, and Bill Smith are flight attendants from Orange County who will compete on the 19th season of "The Amazing Race" when it starts on CBS on Sunday. Though fans of the show since it debuted a decade ago, competing on it was a whole lot harder than it seemed from watching at home, they said.

“And then the next day, we got a follow-up from a friend, saying they were looking for a gay couple, flight attendants, who might want to be on the race.”Still, Zeitz, 44, and Smith, 49, thought surely it was some kind of hoax, because, after all, it couldn’t be that easy to get in the door to “The Amazing Race,” could it?Three or four days passed before they decided to call their friend Molly just to make sure. And when they did?

“She said, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t think you guys were interested!’” Zeitz says. “And that started the ball rolling. Ten minutes later we got a call from casting.”On Sunday, Smith and Zeitz join 10 other couples when the 19th season of “The Amazing Race” kicks off at 8 p.m. on CBS. For the two men, the show fulfills that dream forged on the couch in front of the TV all those years ago.“Since the first season I’ve loved the whole concept of it,” Smith says. “That you’re racing against teams, but you’re really racing against yourself. And no matter how much you’ve traveled in your job, whether you’re a flight attendant or a businessman, you’re going places you’ve probably never been, and you’ve got to figure it out and solve clues and find your way.”

Of course you would think their jobs would give them some small advantage. Smith has worked as a flight attendant for 22 years, Zeitz for 12. They also met each other on a flight – July 13, 1998, Smith says, remembering the date when fate decided their paths would cross.“Neither one of us were supposed to be on that flight,” Smith says of the Chicago to LAX trip when they met. “I was on on-call status that day, and Ron had been changed twice before he got on that flight.”Zeitz says he was experiencing one of this harried journeys home, having missed two flights before the ticket agent found him a seat, telling him he had to run to the gate, though, if he hoped to make it.“And there I was waiting,” Smith says, as they both laugh. “He was coming home from a birthday day weekend and we just started chatting, having a nice conversation. But then we figured out pretty quickly that there was something there.”They’ve been together since that summer, living together in Laguna Niguel since 2000, though Smith has lived in the city since 1996. After their talks with the casting agents for “The Amazing Race” got underway, they used their home there, and a few other spots nearby, to shoot the audition video that both say was important to their acceptance by the show.“The video is key because they want to see who you are,” Smith says. “And when we made the video, we did not script it. One afternoon we put on our uniforms and did some filming in our backyard. And then we went down to the Ritz-Carlton and shot some video there.”Not long after, in early April, they each got calls, Smith in his car, Zeitz at work, saying that they were on the show.“We felt good about it before we got the call, but we were kind of pinching ourselves after it,” Zeitz says.He and Smith say they loved heading out into less-traveled parts of the world to test themselves in the unpredictable challenges “The Amazing Race” throws at competitors.“You put yourself out there and it’s kind of causing you to really stretch comfort zone,” Zeitz says. “You’re kind of depending on the locals to assist you a little bit, so you’re being forced to communicate at times in countries where the language barriers are extremely difficult.”Smith says that kind of face-to-face encounter was one the things he liked most about his time on the show.“I think the art of communication is slowly disappearing because the world is so electronically focused now,” he says. “And I really love engaging and meeting people, who we would probably never see again, but for that moment they were part of our journey.”Their biggest concern about the show was that they not end up fighting or falling apart from the stresses of the adventure.“We’ve watched it for years and clearly there are many melt downs on the race,” Smith says. “Me and Ron always said that when you go on it, you make yourself very vulnerable – it’s not a scripted show – and what if we go on it and have that moment.“We are not a couple that screams at each other, we don’t use profanity, that’s just not us,” he says. “But you have stress in your life, and our fear was that – ‘What if we go on and we appear like that?’”Asked how they fared in that aspect, they both laugh before Smith answers: “We can’t talk about the race, but I think our relationship was accurately portrayed,” he says.Coming home once their time on the show was over was in some ways deflating, they say.“Because there is such excitement and adrenalin rush and emotion, not just during the race but the process before,” Smith says. “The excitement from start to finish is something you’ve never experienced. And once the day comes and the race is over, it’s like a ‘Wow …now what?”Zeitz echoed that sentiment, mentioning as had Smith that the required secrecy – not telling people where they’d been or what they’d been doing – made it even more difficult to go back to work.“I went to work within about four days and I was driving to work thinking, ‘Wow, this experience I will always remember for the rest of my life,’” Zeitz says. “Because you’re sworn to secrecy, you’re sitting there and they’re asking how, ‘How are things going?’“And you’re thinking, ‘If only you knew,’” he says. “I can’t believe the things I was doing just a short time ago.”‘The Amazing Race’ premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan

Domestic partners Ron Zeitz and Bill Smith were eliminated from "The Amazing Race" last night after -- who knows? While this show has seen its share of mid-leg debacles, Ron and Bill seemed to run a successful race -- except for missing a single clue. (Seven other teams overlooked it as well, so that wasn't the deciding moment.)

We couldn't figure out from the episode why Bill and Ron came in last, so we asked the flight attendants -- who, as travel industry insiders, seemed like they'd have some serious advantages -- for details on what went wrong. For the record, the pair, who exited the show arm-in-arm, is still together: "We're in this forever," Ron says.

MSN TV: I have no idea why you guys are off the show.

Ron: Neither do we! We don't know why we finished last, either. I don't want it to sound like an excuse -- and none of this was on camera -- but we really had...I don't want to call it a meltdown. We just had the worst luck with cabs -- like "How did we get here" bad. It's like one o'clock in the morning, and we're driving through this deserted resort town, and the car just ... stops. I'm like, "He's lost." And then in the second cab, the driver was just frozen. He couldn't back out.

Bill: He was so panicked.

So explain this to me: You had two cab drivers. The first driver got lost, the second panicked. But when did you switch cabs?

Bill: You didn't see it on the show. There was an [interchange] with a Route Marker. And our [new] driver just wouldn't move -- he was terrified to pull out. There were other cabs everywhere. Some of the cab drivers just took off -- they were crazy.

Ron: Once he got on the road, he was fine. But at that point, it was impossible to overtake the other cars.

Bill: If you were sixth in line, you were going to be sixth in line for a while.

Ron: We just hoped that whatever the next challenge is going to be, hopefully it would play to our strengths and we’d be able to recover some time.

Were you freaking out the whole time?

Bill: We decided it was really silly to scream -- it wasn't like it was going to accomplish anything. But internally, we were dying.

Ron: We've watched the show for so many seasons -- we were, like, "It's the fatal cab ride -- no!"

You might have had a chance if you'd noticed that tricky clue at the orphanage ...

Ron: We were just so excited to be there. We finished the dance task really quickly, so when we went to the orphanage, we were just feeling the excitement of being with the kids, and they were all cheering us on. You're caught up in the moment. We didn't even think about looking for additional instructions.

Bill: When we arrived, we saw Ernie and Cindy, who'd been on the other [motorbike parking] task -- so we thought that maybe they'd had a really hard time with theirs. We really thought our job was just to hand over the money -- it wasn't like there was any dancing to do there. It was actually a really great moment -- that was our spirit throughout, to really enjoy every moment and see it as special. Of course, had we not been so excited -- had we been in some boring little room -- maybe we would have looked around for other clues.

Ron Zeitz and Bill SmithFlight attendants and domestic partners Ron Zeitz and Bill Smith started Leg 2 of The Amazing Race 19 in last place and stayed there, eventually becoming the second team axed in the show's first double elimination. Their fate was sealed when they were one of the eight teams who missed the additional clue at the orphanage, but the bad luck started with not one, but two bad cab drivers. Find out what you didn't see on the episode and what they think of the extra clue hidden in plain sight.

You were in last the whole leg. Why did you get off to such a bad start?Bill: We make no excuses at all, but — you hear this all the time on the Race — because they can't show everything that happens, you don't see what cab works, what cab didn't. But when we arrived in Jakarta, we were first at the train. The second we landed in Yogyakarta, it was downhill with taxis. Both of our taxis, which were the significant rides of that leg — nice drivers — could never get ahead. ... We never made a mistake until the orphanage. We just had the worst luck — again, it's not an excuse, but just a fact of what happened. With spelunking being a task that has to be done in the order of arrival, there's not a lot of opportunity to make up time. We just had a hard time recovering.

You changed cabs once, but couldn't change again?Bill: No. One was in the middle of the night in an area we knew nothing about. The cab was lost. He was nice and all, but he pulled over and got on his cell phone for help. That put us behind. Then leaving to get to the caves, our cab driver was so afraid of all the activities that he wouldn't pull out to leave, so we ended up as the sixth cab in the line and we were in the second group. The whole time, he tried to pass people, but it was morning rush and there was no way to get around. We were stuck in that 11th spot that entire time.

Ron: The only time our cab really kicked it in was when we left the spelunking and headed into the city center to do the dancing ... and then he flew right to the orphanage. He was just on it at that point, but of course, we had a lot of ground to cover. The showgirls were maybe two minutes ahead of us [leaving the Roadblock]. We knew we were right behind everything.

It seemed like you were by yourselves at the Detour, or were you just at a different street corner? Ron: There were three different corners we could dance at. Jeremy and Sandy, and Marcus and Amani were just finishing when we were coming up. ... I don't know if the bikes were easier, but we were able to fly through dancing. It took, like, 15 minutes ... We knew we were still in last, but we felt like we could still make up some time. Bill: The fact that they were still there — Marcus and Amani were in the first group to leave spelunking — we were happy to see them knowing we left last. The ride from the caves to the next task was over an hour, and that's where our cab driver made up time.

What do you think of the extra clue twist?Bill: Early in the race, they said, what's cool about The Amazing Race is that they're always adding new twists, and I think that's what makes it so exciting and why we've loved it all these years. When you're a longtime fan, you're always looking for that clue box. When they gave us that emblem, that was what the clue box was, and that's what was so cool about this season. Nothing was what you expect it to be. To tag onto that with the sign — never in my wildest dreams would I have thought to look at a sign in a frame. It was a shock to us when we realized we missed it, but as racers, we never thought to look for it. We truly had to say to ourselves afterward — and I'm sure viewers did — "You now have to look at the entire surroundings because anything can be a clue." That was probably the biggest the moment. It wasn't just a clue or a clue box that could give you directions. It could be anything, including what we just thought was part of the desk. We didn't even notice it.

So you never even glanced over?Ron: I think we were feeling excited that we had completed the task pretty quickly. We didn't know where we stood and then you walk in, your adrenaline's pumping, you see these young girls and you start chatting with them and you feel good about what you've been able to do. I'd say, as eight teams missed it, it was really easy to overlook.Bill: At that moment, because we knew we were 11th, we were so about taking in the moment. When we walked in and saw all those girls and the teachers, and they're clapping and yelling, I mean, truly, that moment was what we were there for. ... We were having a great time giving it to them and seeing their excitement. We should always be thinking game, but we weren't thinking game at that second because we knew what the task was. So we missed the clue, but I'll be honest, at that moment, I wasn't thinking about searching around the room for clues.

Had you seen it, you would've been in ninth and safe. Does it the charity aspect of the task make it easier to swallow that you didn't?Ron: Absolutely. When we went back, we knew we were done. As we were running to the Pit Stop the first time, we saw other teams running back. We were thinking that the leg was continuing. Of course, no one's going to tell you they were turned back.Bill: When we went back, we were like, "We're back!" At that point, it was completely about the orphanage. We knew our Amazing Race was going to end, so we took the time to give it to them and wish them well because now it was just about, "Let's give them all this money. We can't change our destiny." We couldn't change anything and even if we could, it wasn't what that moment was about. Now we're giving them $300 U.S., so it's a great gift.

How far behind Ethan and Jenna were you?Bill: Not far at all. They were checking in when we got to the Pit Stop. We had to wait to check in.Ron: I think there was probably 10 minutes between everyone checking in who had to go back. We passed each other going back and forth. It was also brutally warm and humid. I think part of the adrenaline in me was saying, maybe somebody was so tired they had to walk and we would miraculously pass somebody.Bill: We were struggling too and at that point, it would take an Olympic sprint to overtake somebody even 15 minutes ahead of you.

What are you up to now?Ron: We're back at American [Airlines]. We're making people happy in the air. I also do home loans, so I continue to do that. ... We're waiting for Crest Whitestrips to call us because Bill was so impressed with how white our teeth were! We know Crest is going to be calling us any day now! [Laughs] But just enjoying life and taking care of our family. The reason we went on the Race was because there were a lot of medical issues with our family and they were kind of were at a nice place when we went on the Race. Now we're having some major setbacks with cancer battles, so that really is our priority as a family. Bill: We're also getting some really great messages and texts from our friends and family and [coworkers], so it's great to feel that that support too.

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan

On Sunday night's episode of The Amazing Race, the competition got tricky when they left a small note at a task, located at an orphanage in Indonesia, and overlooked by most. Among those teams were Ron and Bill and after a few unfortunate cab drivers, it was enough to knock them out of the running for a million dollars. Today, we caught up with the pair in an exclusive interview to learn more about the experience of running The Amazing Race.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Whose idea was it to try out for The Amazing Race?

A. Bill: It wasn't my idea but I think for years, I've wanted to do it and I was always interested. Ron was always supportive but we didn't ever think we'd ever get on. I was hooked since Season 1 in 2001.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Traveling around the world, with little time to rest, can be very stressful on the teams. As flight attendants, did you find it any easier?A. Ron: Because we are so many times out of our own time zone, we were able to adjust pretty quickly. The actual stress of competing was another story. When it came to managing the stress of travel, we did pretty good with that.A. Bill: We're not high stress people in our daily lives. We do very well as a couple. I think that really benefitted us, just how we responded to the different challenges.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: That actually brings me to my next question. Though we didn't get to see a whole lot of you, it seemed that you got along very well with one another. Did you try to make sure not to let the stress of the race get to you?A. Bill: I'm glad you asked that. What you saw is who we are. I know that every season, there are those couples that explode and lose it and we knew we wouldn't be that couple. We didn't go in trying to hide something or be something we weren't. When we were stressed, we dealt with it. We never said to ourselves, "We need to put up this perfect image," because we do have frustrations but we don't function that way. I'm so thankful that CBS put together the ending the way that they did because it truly caught the essence of who we are.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You got off to a rough start on the race, checking in near the bottom of the pack during the first leg and being eliminated in the second leg. What was the toughest thing for you?A. Ron: The thing that we encountered that we had dreaded was the cab situation. It seemed like that factor really started to play a major part in our running the race. We had two cab problems in Taiwan and you're thinking, "Oh I don't want this to weigh heavily on us," but then when we arrived in Indonesia, we experienced it yet again. Shortly after leaving the train station in a pretty desolate area, we realized he absolutely did not know where he was going. We couldn't make that time up at the spelunking task.A. Bill: We know that the cabs are the unknown in the race and always have been but truly, we only had one cab that got us where we needed to go. We were ready to deal with it but we had no idea how much it would affect us. Aside from the orphanage, we had never made a mistake. It really did alter our course.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: That was a little sneaky of the race to throw that sign up at the orphanage to hand over the rest of your money, wasn't it?A. Bill: Had we caught that, it would've corrected everything that happened to us and would've been an unbelievable moment. Our goal in the race was to seize the moment and not have it just be about winning a million dollar. When we took the money to the orphanage, the girls were yelling and clapping. There was a celebration and we wanted to embrace that moment more than anything. We sat there and visited for a moment and then we were on our way. There's no way we would've ever seen that sign. It was about the experience.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What teams are you rooting for?A. Ron: I really am pulling for Jeremy and Sandy. They're a great couple that we got a chance to talk to and meet. They were very supportive. Anybody else?A. Bill: Every year, you see how some teams get along and don't get along. There was not a team that we didn't like. I mean yeah, emotional favorites make us pull for one over the other... definitely, I have some favorites.

Describe what you do: I ensure that passengers have a safe and enjoyable in-flight experience.

How will these skills help you win The Race? Airport/airplanes are my second home!

Three words to describe you: Inquisitive, personable and pragmatic.

Favorite hobbies: Reading about history, exercising and I’m a doctor wanna-be. I love learning about the human body.

What famous person reminds you of yourself? Abraham Lincoln – I’m a history buff.

What famous person reminds you of your teammate? Bill Clinton

What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? Putting myself through college at Baldwin Wallace College in Ohio.

What scares you most about traveling? Nothing about traveling scares me.

What excites you most about traveling? New places, new faces and new customs.

Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: I’m very proud of our ability to communicate openly with each other. With the pressure of the Race, we will be challenged to keep it this way.

Pet peeve about your teammate: He uses a lot of word inflation.

What country and place would you most like to visit and why? Japan because it appears to be steeped in tradition. It’s the only country to have nuclear bombs dropped on it and still flourish.

What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other then winning one million bucks)? An even stronger bond with my partner.

Bill Smith

Age: 49

Hometown: Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Connection to your teammate: Domestic partner

Current occupation: Flight attendant

Describe what you do: I take care of and serve passengers during the flight.

How will these skills help you win The Race? Being a flight attendant and my awareness of airports/travel should be a huge help as we navigate the Race.

Three words to describe you: Energetic, positive and realistic.

Favorite hobbies: Traveling, spending time with friends and enjoying our home with Ron.

What famous person reminds you of yourself? I don’t think so but some people say Nathan Lane.

What famous person reminds you of your teammate? George Stephanopoulos

What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? Before I met Ron, I’m most proud of making life happen for myself without outside help.

What scares you most about traveling? I really don’t have any fears when it comes to traveling.

What excites you most about traveling? The unknown that awaits at every destination.

Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: We communicate very well but I’m certain the unique environment of the Race will raise at least one or two issues along the way.

Pet peeve about your teammate: His occasional moodiness.

What country and place would you most like to visit and why? Antarctica, because I think it would be the most incredible experience and so few will ever have the chance to go there. I would feel very fortunate to visit.

What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other then winning one million bucks)? I just want to have some time together where we can escape some of the realities of life and enjoy just being together.

I found this story on Facebook and thought it was kind of funny so I'm sharing it. I can just imagine the double take that must have happened.

Okay. This is one of top ten wierdest things that has ever happened to me. Before I went to the gym this morning, I downloaded the one episode of the amazing race that I missed on my dvr to watch on the eliptical. It was the one where the gay couple, Ron and Bill were eliminated. No sooner had I finished watching it when Bill walks in and gets on the machine next to me! What are the chances!?! I told him, "I was JUST watching you!" So I bought lottery tickets on the way home.

I found this story on Facebook and thought it was kind of funny so I'm sharing it. I can just imagine the double take that must have happened.

Okay. This is one of top ten wierdest things that has ever happened to me. Before I went to the gym this morning, I downloaded the one episode of the amazing race that I missed on my dvr to watch on the eliptical. It was the one where the gay couple, Ron and Bill were eliminated. No sooner had I finished watching it when Bill walks in and gets on the machine next to me! What are the chances!?! I told him, "I was JUST watching you!" So I bought lottery tickets on the way home.

It's kinda funny!

Logged

I really wish we could stay longer in the countries we visit, but I've been lucky to have visited most of them before, because I've done a tremendous amount of travel. - Phil Keoghan